an auction house in alexandria, virginia, where it's being kept now. what happened between high-end heist and flee market haggle over 60 years is virtually unknown. >> how tough is it to piece together how it might have made that journey? >> i think people feel a famous painting ought to be very clear, but life has so many twists and turns and it has friendships and deaths and divorces and all kinds of chaos moving, you know, changing of occupation, it's very hard to speculate what are the circumstances would cause the painting to change hands. >> reporter: records of artworks were not digatized and tracked then with the sophistication used now. the fbi is investigating that trail, authorities and probably lawyers will also have to determine whether the painting is rightfully the property of the woman who bautd it for $7 or the museum or the insurer who paid out the claim. right now, it's not clear who that insurer was either. what would sadie may say about this whole situation? >> sadie may was a pretty extraordinary woman. i'm sure she would be amuse